Self-Harm

Understanding Self-Harm

Self-harm is the act of deliberately causing physical damage to your body. The most common and well-known form of self-harm is cutting into the skin with a sharp object. However, there are lots of lesser-known examples of self-harm such as burning, scratching and pinching the skin, or even hitting your head against a wall. People tend to self-harm because they are feeling such extreme emotional pain that they want a sense of relief or a distraction. It’s because of this that self-harming can feel soothing and become addictive. It might be hard to spot if someone you know is self-harming because it’s normally done in secret.

If a person relies on self-harm as a way of coping with difficult feelings, it can be really hard to change their behaviour and do something different. Breaking the cycle of self-harm is very difficult and the person has to make a conscious decision to do so and no-one can make that decision for them.

Our approach is to listen to you without judgement and not tell you what to do or what you are doing is wrong!

For some helpful links to more in-depth information please go to our resources page.